(201) Magazine Blogs

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Rangers 5, Coyotes 2: Postgame wrapup

John Tortorella was just plain incredulous in the post-game presser about the media’s fascination with his benching of Brandon Dubinsky and Christopher Higgins - he promised there would be more this season. Which got some of us to think, who was the last Rangers coach to really wield that hammer of ice time on a consistent basis. Help me out here but I can’t recall Tom Renney, Glen Sather or Bryan Trottier - the three previous coaches I’ve covered on this beat - really holding their players’ accountable in such a way. Ron Low, John Muckler. Was it really as far back as Colin Campbell or, gasp, Mike Keenan?

“I thought they played well,” Tortuorella said of Higgins and Dubinsky. “You start with Higgy. Higgy comes up empty offensively and you can see he is still thinking and it is pressing but I thought he played much harder. He played well. Dubi made some good offensive plays. He was on some great back shots, killed penalties. I thought they both played well.”

And that moment shown on TV when Tortorella was in Higgins’ ear in the first period. The coach said he was suggesting to Higgins that good things would come if he kept his feet moving.

Obviously, what the Rangers’ world wants to know is: How is Marian Gaborik? Not sure we’ll find out tomorrow but the suspicion is this is not a serious thing, perhaps more of the nagging nature. But nothing’s for certain. Whether he skates or not tomorrow won’t really be a good indication as to whether he plays Wednesday against the Islanders.

As for the win over the Coyotes, this was as solid a game as the Rangers have played in a while. And it was because they won the battles along the boards, the were physical and they were stingy both in the neutral zone and their own zone. I thought the forwards, as a group, did a nice job defensively. It’s all the stuff they practiced and emphasized in Sunday’s skate. The Coyotes, after falling behind 4-0, were a tough out and they spent a good portion of the third period pressing the attack.——————————————————————————————————————————
Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord

Among the Rangers I talked to after the game about the forechecking and backchecking that was better tonight - both Sean Avery and Chris Drury essentially said the same thing: that the Rangers have to play like this to be successful. Drury agreed tonight was better than the last few games.in terms of sticking with that style of play.

And Enver Lisin, naturally, who is always in a happy mood, was, well, happy, after the game. He’s wanted the chance to show what he can do and to be able to do it against the team that traded him was perfect for him, though he sort of downplayed it.

Lisin also took a little guff for that sort of lame-o mini-jump he made to celebrate the goal. He sort of sheepishly smiled and said he was just so happy, that’s what came to him.

Then, he made a swooshing motion with his hand, back and forth, weaving in and out and asked me, Jim Cerny of the Rangers’ web site and Newsday’s Steve Zipay, specifically looking at Zipay, and asked, haven’t you ever scored a goal like this (again, indicating skating through the defense).

I told Lisin that Zipay hasn’t scored a goal like that in at least five years.

Me, I was a goalie.

Lisin’s buddy, Artem Anisimov was also pretty happy after the game after his first period goal. Anisimov only played 8:37 as the fourth line center but he took shifts in the third period and he won all three faceoffs he took in the game. Tortorella has said repeatedly it’s a fine line between playing Anisimov, 21, limited minutes in the NHL or getting him top-line minutes in the AHL. But Anisimov does a lot of things right when he’s on the ice and Tortorella said after the game he likes Anisimov in this role.

Here are the Rangers’ post-game notes and quotes, as e-mailed by the team:
* The Rangers defeated the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2, in front of a sold-out crowd (18,200) at Madison Square Garden.
* New York have sold out 163 consecutive regular season games, dating back to November 5, 2005 against New Jersey; the last regular season non-sellout was October 31, 2005 vs. Montreal (17,697); including the playoffs, the Rangers sellout streak is now at 177 games.
* The Blueshirts improved to 8-3-1 overall, including a 5-2-0 mark at home; the Rangers are 13-3-0 in their last 16 regular season games at MSG, and have out-scored their opponents, 59-32, during the stretch.
* The Rangers converted two of five power play opportunities and have now tallied a goal in nine of their last 10 games, clicking at a 35.0% (14-40) success rate over the span; New York have extended their power play goal streak at MSG to six games, converting 40.0% (10-25) of their attempts during the stretch.
* Marian Gaborik led all skaters with two goals and added an assist to earn First Star honors; he is currently tied for the league lead in goals (10) and ranks second in the NHL in points (18).
* Vinny Prospal tallied the game-winning goal and finished with three points and a plus-two rating; Prospal now ranks second in the NHL in assists (12) and is tied for fifth in the league in points (16).
* Donald Brashear registered his first point as a Ranger with an assist on Artem Anisimov’s opening goal at 2:31 of the first period.
* Enver Lisin recorded his first multi-point effort of the season with one goal and an assist on Prospal’s game-winning goal.
* Defenseman Michael Del Zotto tallied two assists, including one on the power play, and is now tied for the league lead in defensemen points (12).
* The Rangers practice schedule for tomorrow, October 27, is 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center.
* The Rangers return to action on Wednesday, October 28, when they will face-off against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum (7:00 p.m.), in an Atlantic Division matchup; the game will be televised live on MSG 2.

POST-GAME QUOTES

John Tortorella on neutral zone play…
“We were better at it. I think we gave up 11 or 12 scoring chances but we were much better away from the puck. The second goal was the one we got caught changing and a couple of people leaving the zone…we were sloppy there but for the most part we were pretty good as far as those types of situations.”

Henrik Lundqvist on tonight’s game…
“I think tonight we were off to a really good start. They are a fast team. They skate a lot and move the puck a lot. We did a good job. It changed a little bit when they scored a couple of goals and got some energy. I like the way we responded in the third. Personally, I knew it was going to be a good intense third period. It felt good with the help of the defense.”

Chris Drury on Enver Lisin…
“Enver brings a lot to that line (first). He seems to be working well with those guys and he does a lot with the scoring chances.”

Sean Avery on Phoenix’s two quick goals in the second period
“That is something that is not a pattern at this point. If it is, it is probably because we got away from our foundation which is our forecheck and our system. We have a certain style we are supposed to play every night and when we stray from that, things don’t go well. I think when we play into our system and into our foundation we find success.”

Posted by Andrew Gross on 10/27 at 04:18 AM

Torts basically benched Gilroy in the third-he only played 2 minutes, and his 15:00 for the game was lowest for all D.

Posted by cat on 10/27 at 04:54 AM

Unfortunately for Gilroy, he joined the team at the wrong time because his playing time is in the shadows of DZ’; he couldn’t of really come at a different time unless he left Boston U.

The Russians are playing well. Torts won’t admit it, but you can tell that he likes rolling four lines. I do think that Artie deserves some PP time, and I think he will get it once Higgins can finally put the biscuit in the basket. I don’t have a problem with Artie playing 4th line, though. It’s not as if that if he sees 1.5x more minutes than what he is getting that he will have equivalent production on the scoresheet. The scoring is well distributed at this point, and the PP has become a catalyst for this team thanks to DZ, Kotalik, Gabby, and Vinny.

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.